By Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores Unificado – Argentina
On Thursday, January 9, 2025, a large operation was carried out by the Federal Police and the Gendarmerie to evict the Mapuche community of Lof Pailako from the Los Alerces National Park, either “peacefully” or by force. Faced with the alternative possibility that resisting the eviction would provoke fierce repression against the community, including the elderly and children, its members chose to leave the park, which was occupied by the police forces and placed at the disposal of the National Parks Administration[1].
This is a new attack against the Mapuche people, who have inhabited the Andean Patagonia for centuries (in what are now the territories of Argentina and Chile). Specifically, the Lof Pailako community has inhabited what is now the National Park for at least five generations, according to anthropological studies conducted by specialists from CONICET and prestigious foreign universities. In other words, long before the creation of the current National Park (between 1937 and 1945).
After the creation of the modern Argentine state, when the Argentine bourgeoisie wanted to extend its dominion over the entire province of Buenos Aires, especially over the Pampas and Patagonia, the indigenous peoples of these regions began to be attacked and expelled from their ancestral lands. An example of this was the hypocritically named “Campaign of the Desert”, led by General Julio Argentino Roca, which culminated in 1879. Most in-depth studies have described this campaign as genocide and ethnocide, a continuation of those carried out by the Spanish colonizers in other regions[2]. All this was done to facilitate the installation of new landowners. A similar process took place in Chile.
In Patagonia, the most affected were the Tehuelche or Aonek’enk (southern) peoples. Among them were the Mapuche, who were confined to small communities scattered in territories to which they had no “legal title”. Their situation worsened with the creation of the National Park Service, whose lands included these territories. The Mapuche began to be branded as “usurpers.”
Moira Millán, a Mapuche weichafe (warrior or fighter), said: “We are the Palestinians of Patagonia. It is a place where there are many geopolitical and economic interests that are strategic, and there is a people, the Mapuche people” (documentary Palaiko: Cosmovisión en Resistencia)[3].
In terms of economic interests, it is currently evident that Andean Patagonia has immense wealth in hydrocarbons (oil and gas) and minerals, it also has internationally renowned tourist attractions suitable for the development of luxury real estate projects, and a large reserve of fresh water in its glaciers and lakes. It is a “very appetizing morsel” for the big foreign and national bourgeoisie, who are always trying to get their hands on it. This is the same analysis presented by Laura Taffetani, of the Argentine Lawyers’ Association: this court order for eviction “has to do with the extractivist and plundering model that has been going on, and the communities are an obstacle to business, to mining”. This organization had filed several appeals for legal protection before the Federal Court of Esquel, the Court of Appeals of Comodoro Rivadavia and the Supreme Court. All were rejected.
The eviction
This eviction action was carried out by order of the federal judge of Trelew, Guido Otranto (the same one who left the murder of Santiago Maldonado unresolved in 2017). Then, as we have seen, it was confirmed by all the higher judicial rulings.
The current context is Javier Milei’s Decree 1083/2024, which “declares the end of the state of emergency regarding the possession and ownership of lands traditionally occupied by indigenous communities, as established in Law 26,160”. This 2006 law “froze” the situation of indigenous territories. It was extended in 2009, 2013, and 2017, until Milei’s decree expired, allowing the eviction of indigenous peoples from their ancestral territories, as has just happened to the Lof Pailako community, in more than 300 court cases.
In this context, the hypocrisy of the Argentine bourgeoisie, its institutions and its media is disgusting. Take, for example, the statements of the governor of Chubut, Ignacio Torres, who, since taking office at the end of 2023, has said: “The law must be enforced and criminals must not be allowed to take what does not belong to them”. Or that of presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni, who said it was “the expulsion of usurpers from lands that belong to all Argentines.
It is a disgusting hypocrisy, because it is the same national and provincial governments (of all colors) that look the other way and do nothing when the British millionaire Joe Lewis appropriates Lago Escondido, in Río Negro, and with a private army prevents the free circulation of the public access road, despite the fact that there has been a court order against him to release it for 9 years[4]. They are also the ones who have allowed the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold to contaminate the water and soil with cyanide[5]. Likewise they have allowed the government of San Juan to expropriate private lands and give them to the company[6].
For these servile agents of the big national and foreign bourgeoisie, the Mapuche are “criminals” and “usurpers,” while the real thieves [in white gloves] and usurpers, such as Joe Lewis and Barrick Gold, are “investors” who are given every legal advantage and have their backs covered (as with the RIGI recently approved by Congress)[7] in exchange for probably very good commissions for the services provided.
This leads them to even more repugnant attitudes, such as the racist denial of the existence of indigenous peoples and their ancestral rights (something that is even included in subsection 17 of article 75 of the National Constitution, which recognizes the ethnic and cultural pre-existence of indigenous peoples).
For example, Ignacio Torres, governor of Chubut, Cristian Larsen, president of the National Park Service, and the mayor of Esquel, Matías Taccetta, participated in the eviction. The national government’s security minister, Patricia Bullrich, even led the operation[8].
On the other hand, numerous human rights, environmental and indigenous organizations expressed their solidarity with the Mapuche and demanded that the eviction not take place. The FIT-U, PTS, PO, IS, and PSTU deputies of Chubut and at the national level did the same.
Important solidarity came from Brazil, following a campaign by the Brazilian PSTU, the CSP-Conlutas, the Luta Popular organization and numerous indigenous communities from that country.
A regime at the service of semi-colonial capitalism
What happened to the community of Lof Pailako is a new demonstration of the true character of the political regime established by the Constitution of 1853 and its subsequent amendments. Its institutions (national government, provincial governments, parliament, judiciary at all levels, police forces, etc.) are no longer the expression of national sovereignty or the “will of the people.” They have been transformed into semi-colonial institutions at the service of imperialist plunder and its national partners.
At this moment, we want to express our solidarity with the community of Lof Pailako and with all the Mapuche people. At the same time, we support their struggle for the right to have their own territories in order to exist as a people according to their ancestral traditions. We demand that these territories be handed over to them, even if they “belong” to private owners or national parks.
But it has become very clear that neither Argentine capitalism, which is subject to imperialism, and the large national corporations associated with it, nor the current political regime will grant them this right. Therefore, the proposal that the solution will come through dialogue and agreement with the governments is a dead end that always ends in evictions like that of the community of Parque los Alerces.
The indigenous peoples of Patagonia also have a fundamental weapon: many of their descendants are oil, mining and fishing workers. Therefore, the way forward is to unite their demands with those of the labor movement in a common struggle.
This is a struggle that should culminate in a workers’ and people’s revolution that leads to a socialist Argentina, building a country that is the opposite of the current one (without the plundering multinationals) and the institutions that serve them. Only a workers’ popular government will be able to guarantee these rights to the indigenous peoples and their full autonomous integration into this new, fairer, and more egalitarian country.
Sources
[1] https://www.infobae.com/politica/2025/01/09/desalojo-en-chubut-los-mapuches-abandonaron-el-parque-los-alerces-y-el-estado-recupero-las-tierras-usurpadas/
[2] https://journals.openedition.org/alhim/103
[3] https://www.instagram.com/chimera.arte/reel/DCy04NVRNIm/”
[4] https://www.lanacion.com.ar/politica/lago-escondido-la-justicia-de-rio-negro-fallo-a-favor-de-joe-lewis-y-se-cerrara-el-camino-corto-que-nid01092023/
[5]https://elpais.com/internacional/2015/09/25/actualidad/1443206825_026909.html
[6] https://www.perfil.com/noticias/politica/el-gobierno-de-san-juan-le-entrego-un-terreno-a-barrick-gold-y-sus-duenos-reclaman-fueron-en-contra-de-las-sentencias-judiciales.phtml
[7] https://litci.org/es/argentina-el-regimen-de-incentivo-a-las-grandes-inversiones-rigi-es-una-mesa-servida-para-el-imperialismo/?utm_source=copylink&utm_medium=browser
[8] https://canal12web.com/localidades/chubut/patricia-bullrich-presente-en-el-operativo-de-desalojo-en-el-parque-nacional-los-alerces/
